


The portrait

by Tyellas



Series: Lab T-4 [15]
Category: The Shape of Water (2017)
Genre: Character Study, Friendship, Gen, Giles: the cool dad, Poignant, Quiet Moment, cat eating discussion again, mild discussion of dating/sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 18:20:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13393566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tyellas/pseuds/Tyellas
Summary: With words and art, Giles sketches a portrait of Elisa.





	The portrait

Giles lit the last candle and put it down. Nine or ten candle stubs in a range of glass jars perched around Elisa’s bathroom. They cast a mellow light around the creature in Elisa’s tub. “There. Those okay for you? I’m going for a chiaroscuro effect as I sketch you tonight.” After a few nights of drawing the creature, Giles still hadn't had enough. He was enjoying getting experimental, feeling inspired again.  And it was best to stay awake to keep their friend out of trouble while Elisa was at work.

The creature, sitting up, had his mouth open with amazement at the little flames. He leaned in, hovered a webbed hand over a candle jar, drew it back. The candle-light spangled his eyes and inked in the shadows of his fins.  

“Looking good. Very natural.” Giles lifted a pad and charcoal, surveyed the creature to capture his lines. The creature was posing helpfully, sitting up, alert, not doing his submerged-sleep. Pretty subdued, come to think of it. All his, ah, _activity_ with Elisa probably had a taming effect. Giles smiled, and sketched for a while. 

When the creature submerged at last, Giles gave in to his slight tiredness. He made himself coffee and toast in Elisa’s kitchenette. The milk in Elisa’s fridge was blinky. She had been preoccupied. He shook his head, bemused, and took black coffee (two sugars) and buttered toast back into the bathroom.  

The creature surfaced and got awfully interested in the toast. Giles offered him a slice. You gave bread to ducks and fish and swans. Toast had to be all right. He nibbled it down, perked up a little more.  

Giles said to him, “You don’t mind if I chat, do you? Keeps me awake.”  

The creature turned to face him and that was perfect, yes, right there, the shading and the candle-light in the eyes. Giles kept talking.  

“Miss your girlfriend? She’s a sweetheart. When she’s not breaking federal law.” Giles remembered he could sign to the creature. So he did: _E-L-I-S-A good._  

The creature repeated this promptly. He added, _YOU good_. 

Giles ducked his head over a grin. “Well. I’ve been trying.” 

“You like Dimitri? Our visitor earlier today. Is Dimitri good?” 

The creature went sullen. 

Giles said, mildly, “Well, I liked him. Elisa didn't tell me he was handsome!"

 _E-L-I-S-A good_ , the creature repeated. 

“Elisa,” Giles said. “I remember getting to know her, this funny kid across the hall. The landlord here, he smokes, but he hates if we smoke. That suits me, with my art and papers. He let her take the place week by week as long as she promised not to smoke inside. I gave her a ride or two. She was so happy to get her job, the one where she met you.”  

Giles shook his head. “You should’ve seen some of her outfits from her first paychecks there. Or maybe not. I gave her a few magazines – told her they were extras from work - showed her some art. Elisa's a quick study. Look at her now, always like she just stepped out of a bandbox. You’d never think she walked out of this dump of ours every night.” 

“You’re not her first boyfriend. You’re the one I like best, though. There were, mmm, a couple of pick-ups. And why not? When you’re young, live a little. She stopped, though. I’m guessing it didn’t go so well one time.”  

“Elisa never said as much, of course. I never asked. There's things you don't ask a lady. But I know what can happen. Especially when you're different.” Giles sighed. “She… dimmed down, for a while. I hadn’t seen her for a few days. Went and knocked on her door, told her I had a new kitten. That was Pandora. Who you ate!”  

The creature blinked, innocently. Giles went on. “No hard feelings. That cat was a goofball, always chewing my paint tubes. I do miss her. Pandora, I mean. One of my other cats, Thor, he’s thrilled, Pandora was his rival. Don’t eat Thor, okay?”  

“Elisa started coming around every morning and never stopped. Always had a little reason. A TV show to peek at, or a sandwich for me, or an Alka-Seltzer when I, uh, had a headache. She’ll pet my cats, but won’t get one of her own: likes her clothes too much to get cat fur on them. I may get another kitten myself one of these days. It’ll be a good distraction when...never mind.” 

Giles sketched a bit more. “I admit, I don't draw Elisa often. Don't ask her to model much. She hasn’t got the proportions. It’s not that I don’t like looking at her. You do too, I bet. But it’s not about complexion or shape with her. It’s all about … light. A lightness in her. She lights up and dims down. Rather like you do, come to think of it. But it is the hardest thing to capture.”  

Giles stopped with the current sketch. Swooping charcoal, radical shading, those luminous eyes, intense as the creature listened for God knows what meaning. Patient and trusting. He tore it away, set it aside for a clean page in his sketch pad. He switched his charcoal stick for a broad, flat pencil.

“Still. Let me try.” 

For some reason he found himself drawing a profile. Light and uncluttered, all about the line.  

Elisa’s profile flowed smoothly out of his pencil in one go, like the edge of a butterfly’s wing. A smiling mouth with lived-in lines, a narrowed, merry eye with an upwards tilt, one earlobe with a modest gold stud. Her hair as he'd so often seen it over the past week, out of order and more interesting for it. Giles added the lines for her neck and collarbones, a daring nude dip for her shoulder, and that was that. Elisa was turned, in motion, looking at something that made her happy. Giles stopped for fear of ruining it.  

He held the portrait up, close to the creature. “Elisa?” 

The creature went breathlessly silent. He reached out and touched the base of the paper with the finger pads of one hand.  

And lit up. 

They stayed there, connected by the picture, for quite some time.  

Finally, Giles sniffed, and dashed at his eyes. ‘I’ll put it here, shall I?” He propped the entire sketch pad at the back of the tub, among the candles. 

When the drawing was safe, Giles looked at the creature. He was drinking in the picture of Elisa, perfectly still, yet alive with wonder. In profile, every contour and muscle and fin was gilded and shaded. Giles sniffed again. Then, he slid up a larger pad, and began to sketch like there was no tomorrow.  

**Author's Note:**

> -waves at readers- So many shorts from me..."enjoying getting experimental, feeling inspired again." Plus I wanted to post something lighter after two dark pieces in a row. Thank you for reading, and I'd love to see your fics, too!


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